1953 British Grand Prix

 1953 British Grand Prix

Racing data
6th of 9 races in the 1953 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	VIth British Grand Prix
Date:	July 18, 1953
Place:	Silverstone
Course:	Silverstone Circuit
Length:	4,239.45 km in 90 laps of 47.105 km
Weather:	overcast, partly showers
Pole position
Driver:	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari
Time:	1: 48.0 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Alberto Ascari / José Froilán González	Ferrari / Maserati
Time:	1: 50,000 min
Podium
First:	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari
Second:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati
Third:	Giuseppe Farina	Ferrari

The 1953 British Grand Prix took place on July 18 at the Silverstone Circuit and was the sixth of nine races in the 1953 World Automobile Championship .

background

26 entries were received for the race. There were no changes to the favorite teams of Ferrari and Maserati compared to the French Grand Prix . Ascari , Farina , Villoresi and Hawthorn competed for Ferrari, Fangio , González , Bonetto and Marimón for Maserati. At the home race in England, HWM and Connaught showed up again with numerous cars. Macklin , Collins and Hamilton drove the latest model, while Jack Fairman had to settle for an older car. Bira , McAlpine and Salvadori steered the factory Connaught. Cooper was only represented with a works car for Ken Wharton , the other Cooper vehicles were rented or sold to private racing teams. His first and only Grand Prix will be entered by Jimmy Stewart , the older brother of the future world champion Jackie Stewart .

training

The training, which took place largely in the rain, resulted in the expected duel between the Ferraris and the Maseratis. Ascari secured pole position in the Ferrari ahead of the Maserati González, Hawthorn's Ferrari and Fangio in the Maserati. The fastest driver who did not drive one of these two cars was Trintignant in the Gordini , who was around 4 seconds behind pole time, but was only 1 second slower than the slowest Maserati (Marimón).

run

Ascari used his pole position and took the lead. The best start was made by Lance Macklin, who was able to move up to sixth position at short notice from 12th on the grid. However, the engine power of his HWM was not enough to survive even a single lap at this position - so he came back from the first lap in tenth place. On the second lap, González passed Fangio and Hawthorn overtook Marimón, only to go off the track in the Woodcote corner. The inspection stop that was then necessary resulted in a small leak in the fuel tank. By the time this was fixed, the entire field was over. Ascari and González, meanwhile, pulled away a little from the field. In the 17th round González was shown the black flag, which meant a disqualification. Marshals saw that his car was losing oil. At the pit stop, however, no oil leak could be found and so González was allowed to continue. However, he had lost two positions. Ascari was now ahead of Fangio, Villoresi and González. The order remained unchanged until lap 66, when Villoresi had to retire from the race with a broken rear axle. On the same lap, Marimón had to retire with an engine failure. Since Hawthorn overtook Trintignant on this very lap, the Italian cars were now back on positions 1-5 and crossed the finish line in the same order.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
HWM	1	Lance Macklin	HWM 53	Alta 1.5	D.
	2	Peter Collins
	3	Duncan Hamilton
	4th	Jack Fairman
Scuderia Ferrari	5	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari 500	Ferrari 2.0 L4	P
	6th	Giuseppe Farina
	7th	Luigi Villoresi
	8th	Mike Hawthorn
Ecurie Rosier	9	Louis Rosier	Ferrari 500	Ferrari 2.0 L4	D.
Connaught	10	Birabongse Bira	Connaught A	Francis 2.0 L4	D.
	11	Kenneth McAlpine
	12	Roy Salvadori
Rob Walker Racing Team	14th	Tony Rolt	Connaught A	Francis 2.0 L4	D.
Ecurie Ecosse	15th	Ian Stewart	Connaught A	Francis 2.0 L4	D.
	18th	Jimmy Stewart	Cooper T20	Bristol 2.0 L6
Team Ken Wharton	16	Ken Wharton	Cooper T23	Bristol 2.0 L6	D.
Team Bob Gerard	17th	Frederic Roberts-Gerard	Cooper T23	Bristol 2.0 L6	D.
Team RJ Chase	19th	Alan Brown	Cooper T23	Bristol 2.0 L6	D.
Team Atlantic Stable	20th	Peter Whitehead	Cooper T24	Alta 1.5	D.
Team Tony Crook	22nd	Anthony Crook	Cooper T24	Bristol 2.0 L6	D.
Officine Alfieri Maserati	23	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati A6SSG	Maserati 2.0 L6	P
	24	José Froilán González
	25th	Felice Bonetto
	26th	Onofre Marimón
Team Louis Chiron	27	Louis Chiron	OSCA 20	OSCA	P
Equipe Gordini	28	Harry Schell	Gordini T16 (1952)	Gordini 2.0 L6	E.
	29	Maurice Trintignant
	30th	Jean Behra
Team Emmanuel de Graffenried	31	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Maserati A6SSG	Maserati 2.0 L6	P

classification

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	km / h	Starting row
1.	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	1: 48,000	157.02	1 row
2.	José Froilán González	Maserati	1: 49,000	155.58	1 ch
3.	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	1: 49,000	155.58	1 RM
4th	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati	1: 50,000	154.16	1 row
5.	Giuseppe Farina	Ferrari	1: 50,000	154.16	2 L
6th	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	1: 51,000	152.77	2 M.
7th	Onofre Marimón	Maserati	1: 51,000	152.77	2 L
8th.	Maurice Trintignant	Gordini	1: 52,000	151.41	3 rows
9.	Harry Schell	Gordini	1: 52,000	151.41	3 RM
10.	Tony Rolt	Connaught	1: 54,000	148.75	Ch 3
11.	Ken Wharton	cooper	1: 54,000	148.75	3 L
12.	Lance Macklin	HWM	1: 57,000	144.94	4 rows
13.	Kenneth McAlpine	Connaught	1: 57,000	144.94	4 M.
14th	Peter Whitehead	cooper	1: 57,000	144.94	4 L
15th	Jimmy Stewart	cooper	1: 58,000	143.71	5 R
16.	Felice Bonetto	Maserati	1: 58,000	143.71	5 RM
17th	Duncan Hamilton	HWM	2: 02,000	139.00	5 ch
18th	Frederic Roberts-Gerard	cooper	2: 02,000	139.00	5 L
19th	Birabongse Bira	Connaught	2: 04,000	136.76	6 R
20th	Ian Stewart	Connaught	2: 04,000	136.76	6 M.
21st	Alan Brown	cooper	2: 04,000	136.76	6 L
22nd	Jean Behra	Gordini	2: 04,000	136.76	7 R
23.	Peter Collins	HWM	2: 06,000	134.59	7 RM
24.	Louis Rosier	Ferrari	2: 07,000	133.53	7 ch
25th	Anthony Crook	cooper	2: 07,000	133.53	7 L
26th	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Maserati	2: 09,000	131.46	8 R
27.	Jack Fairman	HWM	2: 32,000	111.56	8 M.
28.	Roy Salvadori	Connaught	without time		8 L
DNS	Louis Chiron	OSCA

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	time	km / h	s. Rd.	guide
1.	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	90	2: 50: 00,000	149.63	1: 50,000	90
2.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati	90	2: 51: 00,000	148.75
3.	Giuseppe Farina	Ferrari	88	2: 50: 12,000	146.13
4th	José Froilán González	Maserati	88	2: 50: 58,000	145.48	1: 50,000
5.	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	87	2: 50: 15,000	144.43
6th	Felice Bonetto	Maserati	82	2: 50: 16,000	136.11
7th	Birabongse Bira	Connaught	82	2: 51: 53,000	134.83
8th.	Ken Wharton	cooper	80	2: 50: 43,000	132.44
9.	Peter Whitehead	cooper	79	2: 50: 56,000	130.62
10.	Louis Rosier	Ferrari	78	2: 50: 27,000	129.33
DNF	Jimmy Stewart	cooper	79	accident
DNF	Tony Rolt	Connaught	70	Power transmission
DNF	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	65	Rear axle
DNF	Onofre Marimón	Maserati	65	engine
DNF	Peter Collins	HWM	56	accident
DNF	Alan Brown	cooper	55	engine
DNF	Jack Fairman	HWM	54	coupling
DNF	Roy Salvadori	Connaught	50	suspension
DNF	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Maserati	34	coupling
DNF	Lance Macklin	HWM	30th	coupling
DNF	Jean Behra	Gordini	29	Fuel system
DNF	Ian Stewart	Connaught	24	engine
DNF	Duncan Hamilton	HWM	14th	coupling
DNF	Maurice Trintignant	Gordini	13	Rear axle
DNF	Frederic Roberts-Gerard	cooper	11	engine
DNF	Harry Schell	Gordini	5	ignition
DNF	Kenneth McAlpine	Connaught	0	unknown
DNF	Anthony Crook	cooper	0	engine

World Cup stand after the race

In 1953, points were awarded according to the following scheme:

1st place	place 2	place 3	4th place	5th place	Fastest lap
8th	6th	4th	3	2	1

• Only the four best results from nine races counted. Deleted results are shown in brackets.
• The numbers marked with * include the point for the fastest lap.
• Fields marked in the same color indicate shared vehicles.

Item	driver	constructor										Points
1.	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	9 *		8th	8th	(3)	8.5 *				33.5 (36.5)
2.	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	3		3		8th	2				16
3.	José Froilán González	Maserati	4th		2	(1*)	4th	3.5 *				13.5 (14.5)
4th	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	6th		1*	6th						13
	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati					7 *	6th				13
6th	Giuseppe Farina	Ferrari			6th		2	4th				12
7th	Bill Vukovich	Kurti's power		9 *								9
8th.	Art Cross	Kurti's power		6th								6th
9.	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Maserati			2	3						5
10.	Onofre Marimón	Maserati				4th						4th
11.	Oscar Gálvez	Maserati	2									2
	Sam Hanks	Kurti's power		2								2
	Duane Carter	Kurti's power		2								2
	Jack McGrath	Kurti's power		2								2
	Felice Bonetto	Maserati			2							2
	Maurice Trintignant	Gordini				2						2
17th	Fred Agabashian	Kurti's power		1.5								1.5
	Paul Russo	Kurti's power		1.5								1.5

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Unless otherwise stated based on: Lang, Mike; Grand Prix 1950-1965; Haynes Publishing Group, Sparkford Sommerset 1981 S61f. ( ISBN 0-85429-276-4 ) (Engl.)